Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Asterids: Campanulids: Asterales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Sericocarpus caespitosus
FAMILY
Asteraceae
Go to FSUS key
Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
Note that S. asteroides was split by Nesom in 2021 into a revised S. asteroides and a new S. caespitosus. Read more at Vascular Plants of North Carolina.
Test-drive A Teaching Key to Asters.
Sericocarpus caespitosus Nesom, sp. nov., without stoloniform rhizomes, occurs inland from western New York to coastal counties of Alabama and Florida. Read more in Nesom 2021c.
INCLUDED WITHIN
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Sericocarpus asteroides
FAMILY
Asteraceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH Sericocarpus asteroides (Asteraceae: Astereae), rhizomatous and colonial, and Sericocarpus caespitosus, sp. nov
Sericocarpus caespitosus
INCLUDED WITHIN Flora of North America north of Mexico, vol. 19-20-21 (2006)
Sericocarpus asteroides
INCLUDED WITHIN VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 179-47-001:
Aster paternus FAMILY Asteraceae
INCLUDED WITHIN Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Sericocarpus asteroides
COMMON NAME:
Toothed Whitetop Aster
To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.
)
USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_seas3_001_lvd
)
JK Marlow jkm200525_5198
May Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
)
JK Marlow jkm200525_5201
May Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
)
JK Marlow jkm220517_7894
May Greenville County SC
Chestnut Ridge Heritage Preserve
)
JK Marlow jkm220517_7896
May Greenville County SC
Chestnut Ridge Heritage Preserve
)
JK Marlow jkm0506j_16
June Oconee County SC
The 1/2" heads are borne in flat-topped clusters, per Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998).
)
JK Marlow jkm0506j_18
June Oconee County SC
Leaves elliptic, lower with a petiole & a few teeth, upper smaller & sessile, per Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998).
)
JK Marlow jkm170624_242
June Oconee County SC
Sumter National Forest: Andrew Pickens Ranger District
)
JK Marlow jkm210610_1257
June Greenville County SC
Blackwell Heritage Preserve
The basal leaves and/or lower stem leaves larger than the upper stem leaves, per Weakley's Flora (2022).
)
JK Marlow jkm210619_1461
June Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
Involucres narrowly campanulate to cylindric, upper bracts usually squarrose, per Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968).
COMPARE
involucral bracts of North American asters
)
JK Marlow jkm210619_1466
June Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
)
JK Marlow jkm210619_1467
June Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
The so-called White-topped Asters have about 5 rays and creamy-white disks, per Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998).
)
JK Marlow jkm210619_1469
June Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
Rays broader than those of S. linifolius, per Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians (Horn, Cathcart, Hemmerly, & Duhl, 2005).
)
JK Marlow jkm190702_9587
July Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
)
JK Marlow jkm190726_0165
July Transylvania County NC
DuPont State Forest
)
JK Marlow jkm200703_6313
July Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
Stems generally scabrous-puberulent in the inflorescence, per Manual of Vascular Plants of NE US & Adjacent Canada (Gleason & Cronquist, 1991).
)
JK Marlow jkm200703_6315
July Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
)
JK Marlow jkm200703_6318
July Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
)
JK Marlow jkm200703_6320
July Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
)
JK Marlow jkm190810_0637
August Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Sericocarpus caespitosus
FAMILY
Asteraceae
INCLUDED WITHIN
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Sericocarpus asteroides
FAMILY
Asteraceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Sericocarpus asteroides (Asteraceae: Astereae), rhizomatous and colonial, and Sericocarpus caespitosus, sp. nov
Sericocarpus caespitosus
INCLUDED WITHIN
Flora of North America north of Mexico, vol. 19-20-21
Sericocarpus asteroides
INCLUDED WITHIN
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 179-47-001:
Aster paternus
FAMILY
Asteraceae
INCLUDED WITHIN
Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Sericocarpus asteroides
163
Forb
Perennial
Habitat: Dry woodlands, thin soils around rock outcrops, longleaf pine sandhills, other dry pinelands, woodland margins, per Weakley's Flora
Native to the Carolinas & Georgia
Common (uncommon in GA Coastal Plain) (rare in SC Coastal Plain)
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.
LEAVES:
Simple
Leaves basally disposed, the basal leaves (these sometimes withered by flowering season) and/or lower stem leaves larger than upper stem leaves
Alternate & basal rosette
FLOWER:
Spring/Summer
Rays: White
Disc: White
Inferior ovary
Disc flowers bisexual & fertile/ Ray flowers pistillate & fertile
Flower heads in flat corymbs
FRUIT:
Summer?
Achene
TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!
- Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses (Miller & Miller, 2005) p016
- Newcomb's Wildflower Guide (Newcomb, 1977) p210
- Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast (Cotterman, Waitt, & Weakley, 2019) p188
- Wildflowers of the Eastern United States (Duncan & Duncan, 1999) p112
- Field Guide to the Wildflowers of Georgia (Chafin, 2016) p112
- Wildflowers of Tennessee (Carman, 2005) p324
- Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians (Horn, Cathcart, Hemmerly, & Duhl, 2005) p375
- Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998) p213
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